Page:Stanley Weyman--Count Hannibal.djvu/247

Rh “He spared your life, if he did not save it,” the minister said solemnly. “And hers. And her servants.”

“To suit himself.”

La Tribe spread out his hands.

“To suit himself! And for that you wish him to go free?” Tignonville cried in a voice half-choked with rage. “Do you know that this man, and this man alone, stood forth in the great Hall of the Louvre, and when even the King flinched, justified the murder of our people? After that is he to go free?”

“At your hands,” La Tribe answered quietly. “You alone of our people must not pursue him.” He would have added more, but Tignonville would not listen.

Brooding on his wrongs behind the wall of the Arsenal, he had let hatred eat away his more generous instincts. Vain and conceited, he fancied that the world laughed at the poor figure he had cut; and the wound in his vanity festered until nothing would serve but to see the downfall of his enemy. Instant pursuit, instant vengeance—only these, he fancied, could restore him in his fellows’ eyes.

In his heart he knew what would become him better. But vanity is a potent motive: and his conscience, even when supported by La Tribe, struggled but weakly. From neither would he hear more.

“You have travelled with him, until you side with him!” he cried violently. “Have a care, monsieur, have a care, lest we think you papist!” And walking over to the men, he bade them saddle; adding a sour word which turned their eyes, in no friendly gaze, on the minister.

After that La Tribe said no more. Of what use would it have been?

But as darkness came on and cloaked the little troop, and the storm which the men had foreseen began to rumble in the west, his distaste for the business waxed. The summer lightning which presently began to play across the sky